Video game revenues to drop $5bn by 2019

A report from Juniper Research has found that global revenues from PC and console games will decline from $46.5 billion this year to $41 billion by 2019. It also reveals that despite the decreasing sales of console hardware and increasing significance of mobile platforms, PC and console games will still account for over 50 per cent of industry revenues over the next 5 years.

Global revenues from software sales on both the PC and console platforms will remain relatively healthy, with PC games software sales exceeding sales on the console platform.

The report found that the new generation of consoles will generate a short-term uplift in software sales, which is then expected to slow down as the lifecycle of the hardware progresses. Juniper also believes that a 9th generation of consoles is likely to arrive around 2019, assuming a similar console lifecycle to previous iterations, which is also likely to provoke a longer term software spike.

The report highlights that the cloud games market will reach $1 billion in revenues – a growth of almost 30 per cent on the 2014 figure of $281 million. The increase is a result of the launch of services, such as the PlayStation Now, and rising interest from operators to augment ARPU by adding cloud games alongside traditional services.

Other Findings from the report include:
– Multiplayer online battle arena games will continue to be among the most popular genres on the PC platform.
– Handheld devices will continue to struggle in attracting gamers, and revenues from this platform will shrink to under 2 per cent of the total games industry sales by 2018.
– The increasing availability of online video game streaming platforms, such as Twitch, supports the surge in popularity of eSports, or professional gaming.